


blood forms branches in the water

by Emile_is_waiting



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Gen, Historical Inaccuracy, Hurt/Comfort, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27522022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emile_is_waiting/pseuds/Emile_is_waiting
Summary: Technoblade has been raised to be a fighter, to show off his prowess in the Colosseum. During a visit to the hospital though, he meets a couple boys that change his lonely life.He learns that, maybe, there's more to living then war.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 91





	blood forms branches in the water

**Author's Note:**

> Me? Impulse posting again? So soon? Impressive, really.
> 
> This is just a cleaned up piece I wrote a while back for a writing contest! The theme was "historical au" so yall get sum GLADIATORS and HURT/COMFORT! And thank u sm to Tsurra, who helped touch up this fic ♡

Footsteps echo down the hall as he steps closer and closer to the light. The path is old and derelict, not made for the prowling eyes of the crowd to see. 

As he stands before the entrance, the man puffs his chest and adjusts his cloak of flowing red silk and cream wool.

The Gladiator steps before the screaming hordes of people in all of his glory. He waves at them all and grins like he was taught to, wide and proud.

At the end opposite, an unlucky fool with a round white mask and olive-coloured tunic grips the iron handles of the wide oak doors and slams them open at the call of the announcer, releasing a pack of wild boar that nearly run the man over. 

The warrior is not nearly as slow. He expertly jumps to the left as the pack races towards him and unsheathes his long iron sword. It is chipped and worn at the edges but no less sharp than the day he got it, shining red-hot from the forge.

Everything fades into a world underwater as he falls into the familiar routine of slash, dodge, slash, dodge, slash, dodge. He is a machine made to fight, to kill, nothing comes more naturally.

The roaring crowd is nothing more than a whisper now, in the back of his mind. It's just him and his blade, nothing but adrenaline powering him.

Until it isn't.

The pain comes to him as he pushes the blade right through the last boar. It sears like wildfire, blooming from his side and crawling through every inch of him. His knees greet the ground and he holds himself up solely by his sword, planted into the bloody soil of the Colosseum.

Technoblade's world fades into a hazy black and he falls, falls, falls.

\----------

When Techno comes to, he opens his eyes to the face of a boy peering over him, likely in his late teens, with eyes the colour of melted gold. 

"Philza! The Gladiator is awake, finally!" 

The odd accent in the boy's speech is one of high class and his clothing seems to back it up too. His tunic is the same shade as his golden eyes and a dark maroon cloak hangs over his shoulders with a silver clasp.

Before he can greet the elite stranger, however, a much more familiar face comes into view. 

Said familiar face is the head nurse, Philza, who he sees more often than he should. He’d been working here as long as Techno had been alive, having taken over his father's job. "Techno! I told you I didn't want to see you in this building again for, at minimum, a week! And you come in, bleeding to death, four days later!"

Techno rolls his eyes. "It was just a scratch, Phil, nothing serious, I can't even feel the pain." he lies through his teeth, "There isn't anything wrong so no need to worry in the slightest." 

Phil responds by putting him on bedrest for another week.

As he lies back to accept his cruel fate, a little blond boy he hadn't yet seen and the boy in gold from before both seat themselves onto the end of his cot. 

The blondie turns out to be a loud one. "That was a really cool battle you had, Sir Blade! The boars were so scary and huge but you just chopped them all down!" He motions with his hands to make poor impersonations of a swinging sword. 

"I bet I'd be the best gladiator under the sun if my father would allow me to train for real! Imagine that, gladiator Tommy Gold, has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? I train nearly every day after school lets out and I bet I’m as strong as you!" Despite his sass, Tommy would be quite endearing if he'd shut up for a minute.

The boy in gold sighs dramatically. "Call me Wilbur. Apologies for Tommy's loud mouth, but even Mother dearest can't get him to quiet down." Wilbur points to the medical wrappings on his bicep. "We're only here because the damn boars they had stored inside came loose and caused a bit of a scuffle. Bet you would've killed them all in seconds if you hadn't passed out like you did."

Even as he berates his little brother for his mouth, Wilbur similarly has the all too familiar glint of adoration in his eyes. To him and Tommy, he's a superhuman blessed by the Gods to fight like no other mortal man.

He bumps his ego up and smiles through his throbbing headache. "Yeah? Bet I could've wrecked them real good. Maybe if someone can convince Philza to let me out sooner, I could show you some of the moves I've learned?"

Wilbur rolls his eyes at Techno's meagre attempt at escape, but Tommy hops off the bed and runs off to do just that anyway. 

Maybe bedrest wouldn't be so bad if he has some company.

\----------

As the sun leaves the sky on his second to last day in the hospital, rain begins to pour from the sky in what seems like bucketfuls. The thickly humid air makes Techno’s bandages feel even tighter than normal. No patients are in the building beside him at the time and only Philza stayed behind to do paperwork. Tommy and Will have long left from their daily visit and he misses the ambient noise. 

He shifts under the linen sheets and listens as the rain lulls him to unrestful sleep. 

When Techno opens his eyes, he finds himself on a mountain. It’s barren, without a single drop of life to be found, with a beaten dirt road heading in a path straight to the summit. His very soul whispers to him to make his way to the top. It’s a feeling that comes from deep inside him, where the feral shadows live and writhe. They scream at him to go, go, go.

So he walks, and walks, and walks. 

As the twilight makes its entrance, a man appears on the trail beside him. A round, white mask covers his eyes and he dons an olive coloured tunic that seems to glow and shimmer like an ocean pearl in the dimming light. The man walks right past him and keeps going up to the unknown destination. 

He can tell they are one and the same. He can hear the stranger’s demons shriek and push just like his own do.

Techno continues ascending the mountain right behind the stranger and just as the night sets in at its truest, the silhouette of a tower comes into view. 

Another figure cloaked in black robes, darker than any Techno had ever seen, stands in front of the high spire in an unnatural stillness. When Techno is stood directly before the shadow-clad figure, it moves its hands onto his chest. He can feel his heart racing and he knows it can as well. 

His breath is deafeningly loud in the stark quiet. He can’t hear the green-clad man’s breaths anymore. Techno feels the parasites in his veins pulse and squirm. He hates it all.

The tips of boar horns can be seen poking out of the void of the figure’s hood. One is coated in a slick layer of blood as ruby-red as its eyes that pierce straight through him. 

It pushes and he falls, falls, falls. 

\----------

“-chno, Techno, wake up!” 

He wakes, once again, to Wilbur’s golden eyes, this time accompanied by vigorous amounts of shaking. Will looks down on him with his face screwed up in concern. 

Tommy’s voice joins into the fray. “Techno! You okay mate? Phil said you were thrashing around all night and you were practically screaming by the time we came!” The callousness in his voice is betrayed by the shaken look on his face and the tears that threaten to spill from his baby blue eyes. 

The memories of his dream are both so vivid and yet so very muddled. He remembers the man in pearlescent green robes and the building at the mountain summit, but the details of who was there slip away from him. 

It’s only when Philza clutches his hand like a vice does Techno realize he’s shaking like a leaf. He doesn’t know why that dream makes him feel like a mere babe again. Even though he knows he’s under a roof with the people he cherishes, with a warm stomach and healed wounds, he can feel as if rain is pelting from the heavens and seeping through his skin like venom.

The cot sinks down on his right and Phil grasps his shoulders and pulls him into an embrace. Phil smells like mint and sunshine and is so incredibly warm in the biting morning air. Before he can really settle in though, a blonde nest of hair pops in between him and Phil. 

He chuckles, but Philza just pulls Tommy into the hug as well and right into his lap. Techno snuggles the two and a fourth lies against him, back-to-back. The cot is small and the fit is tight between the four of them, but it’s no less inviting. 

Techno can feel the last vestiges of panic grasping for him yet again, but before he can fully fall back into the haze, he can start hearing Wilbur softly whispering a song he’s never heard before. He only hums the first verse before singing in full.

Devil town is colder in the summertime,  
I'll lose my mind at least another thousand times,  
Hold my hand tight, we'll make it another night,  
I still get a little scared of something new,  
But I feel a little safer when I'm with you,  
Falling doesn't feel so bad when I know you've fallen this way too.

Techno rests, dreaming now of golden flower fields and the glittering stars.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Hey you! Do you like reading or writing fanfic but have no friends to talk to about it? Join the MCYT AO3 Discord and come vibe! Talk to me and fellow readers about your favourite works and block men :D   
> [https://discord.gg/ct5Vf4BN9W]
> 
> See yall when I finally post the last chapter of the sbi orphan au 


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